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Liberal Democrat frontbencher David Heath said a centuries-old 'fundamental principle' of the Commons had been 'threatened by the legal proceedings.'

Labour MP Denis MacShane said the gagging order had shown 'the growing contempt of the legal-adminstrative pillars of the state for parliamentary democracy’.

He added: 'Even though there is not a newspaper ready to defend MPs in the present climate, I hope there are some MPs willing to defend press freedom.

'The attempt by the law firm Carter-Ruck, acting on behalf of the oil firm Trafigura, to place a secret injunction on the media's reporting of an MP's question in the Commons, sets a disturbing precedent, even if the order has now been dropped.

'If MPs were no longer to be able to say anything under parliamentary privilege against the rich and powerful, then the lawyers, off-shore media proprietors and state officials might as well dissolve parliament and run Britain without MPs.'

The right to report parliament was the subject of many battles in the 18th century.

The term Kafkaesque derives from the dark novels of early 20th century writer Franz Kafka which often involved the distortion of reality by powerful but anonymous bureaucrats.